BTC signs heads of agreement with BCPOU

Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) announced yesterday that it has officially signed a heads of agreement (HOA) with the leadership of the Bahamas Communications and Public Officers Union (BCPOU), that will form the basis for a new industrial agreement, a press release on the matter revealed.

According to the release, the HOA was signed last week and was a long-anticipated agreement.

BTC Chief Executive Officer Garfield Sinclair said in the release that he has worked hard to build a relationship with the unions and ensure there is a productive relationship between union workers and management.

“Though it took some doing, I am happy to say that we have finally agreed to updated terms and conditions to form the basis of a new industrial agreement. I would like to thank the president, Dino Rolle and executives of the BCPOU, along with our team, who worked very hard to bring this long outstanding agreement to a close,” Sinclair said.

“Our goal now is to justify the trust our customers have placed in our products and services as the telecoms provider of choice for the Bahamian people and we’ve made some notable progress over the last nine months in this regard.”

Sinclair said BTC has made improvements in its mean install times, which dropped from 20 days in August to three days; expanded high speed internet and expanded Flow TV to several areas of New Providence, improved retail operations, introduced the My BTC mobile app and introduced the BTC Radio mobile app.

According to Sinclair, union partners are important to BTC’s success and very important to its evolution.

“When we all work together towards the common goal of ensuring that BTC remains a competitive business for generations to come, there is no stopping us,” he said.

“Now that the terms of the BCPOU’s industrial agreement are completed, we have already begun discussions in earnest with the leadership of our management union which represents almost one hundred BTC team members. We are optimistic that we will reach an agreement with the Bahamas Communications and Public Managers Union in the near future.”

The statement said BTC will formally celebrate the signing of the agreement when it has completed the formalities with the managers’ union. It added that BCPOU’s industrial agreement will expire on March 31, 2020.

Chester Robards rejoined The Nassau Guardian in November 2017 as a senior business reporter. He has covered myriad topics and events for The Nassau Guardian.Education: Florida International University, BS in Journalism